Synopsis

Akira Inugami just transfered into his new school. The principal and teachers fear what may happen because Inugami was placed in the same homeroom as the school's biggest problem and gang leader.

His homeroom teacher Aoshika is going out of her mind trying to figure out what happened the night before, where she could have sworn she saw this same Inugami beaten alive and then hit by a car by a large group of thugs in a park. But somehow, Inugami, who denies everything, of course, is alive and without a scratch attending his first day at his new school.

What the teacher Aoshika did not witness was a crazy werewolf-like beast destroy the thugs that attacked Inugami in the park.

So look at the numbers I have put on this one, and you will see something strange.

Story - 7
Art- 10
Character-8
Overall-7
Enjoyment-2

But...enjoyment 2? really?

Okay, so here's the deal with this manga. Don't pay any attention to any review written by someone who hasn't read all or almost all of the chapters. For the most part this is just a fun violent story about a werewolf fighting gang members. It's pretty hard on the gore, but I mean...werewolves.

But then the story gets to this place and I just.....

I mean I understand that a lot of writers, especially male writers, think that having a girl get raped is a good way to give her some character development, or that it's like trauma for her to deal with or whatever and I can even understand if it's a little over the top for some titillation for more pervy readers.

But look. Look. A few pages. MAYBE one chapter even, I could understand.

But Ookami, I guess feeling like it needed to distinguish itself, is not satisfied until it has devoted more than FIVE ENTIRE CHAPTERS to this woman being graphically raped repeatedly by like 7 dudes. Every single detail of what happens to her is right there for you to see.

Anyway after all of that, no matter if she got rescued or shot or what, I was done with being able to engage with the story at all.

Seriously, this manga should have "hentai" as a genre, because it is really that bad and that long. Basically it is so bad that it not only cancels out everything good about this manga, it just keeps going until whenever you see a picture of the cover or read the title later, you just think "Oh yeah that's that manga with the 5 chapters of gang rape" and you move on.read more

Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest, at least thats what onemanga calls it, is a manga about a werewolf named Akira. And that's a good enough introduction for me, so on to the review.

STORY: 8/10
Well, there are only 19 chapters out at the time of this review so theres not too much of a story right now. Although the little story there is seems to be good. Akira is in his last year of middle school and has just transfered into one of the most dangerous schools ever. Seriously. He walks into class on the first day, starts to write his name on the board, and before he's even finished he gets a knife thrown at him. Nice class, eh? So this is a fight manga where Akira gets beat up a ton, but he doesn't fight back because he feels humans are a waste of time. He just gets hit with iron pipes, bats, and fists, but he's basically invincible weather he's in werewolf form or not so he doesn't care.

When he has fought back it's pretty freaking cool and fun to watch. He hasn't revealed that he's a werewolf to anyone yet, so everyone is really confused as to why he can take a razor blade to the back and walk to school the next day unphased. Akira's teacher is suspicious of him so she is trying to figure out why Akira is the way that he is. I want to give the story a 9, but it's just too soon to be handing out scores that high for a story thats so premature.

ART: 8/10
This is a very dark manga and the drawings are just as dark. But sometimes the art can be too dark, and it's hard to tell what exactly is going on. Overall it is extemely well drawn, and the backgrounds and characters are all very uniquely drawn. Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest definetly has it's own style. The art can be beautiful at times and scary at others. It really is great except for one little aspect which appears in thousands of other manga. The "middle school kids" look like they are all adults. Akira looks older than his homeroom teacher. Since this manga is obviously for ages 17+ I don't see why the mangaka decided to make the characters 14-15. However it really doesn't take away from anything aside from a little realism so I can half-way forgive him.

CHARACTER: 8/10
Well, you've got Akira (werewolf), his sexy homeroom teacher Ms. Aoshika, and a bunch of school delinquents. Akira has a pretty mysterious past so you don't really know much about where he comes from, but his homeroom teacher has already gotten a nice amount of backstory. Even a couple of the random school delinquients have had some good backstory which is very unusual, but very much appreciated. You understand why they are so mad all of the time, and why they bully others. For 19 chapters there is a perfect amount of back-story. It's not all given in one random flashback chapter either. You get bits and pieces gradually, and it really builds the characters.

Also, Akira is one badass mofo.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
As I was reading through the epic fight scenes, admiring the beautiful artwork and totally immersing myself into the Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest universe I was subconsciously thinking one thing: If only that hot homeroom teacher would get naked. I know its extremely pig-headed of me, but I wanted some nudity to go along with all the blood and cursing. Then BOOM! she was topless. Now, this manga was perfect. It had a badass main character, naked hot chicks, and werewolves. I dare anyone to come up with a more enjoyable combination of things than that.

OVERALL: 8/10
I already kinda summed up Wolf Guy in the Enjoyment part of this review so I'll make this short. Awesome. Yes. 8.read more

(CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS)
Rather than ponder over which line to open this review with, I’ve just decided to use them both:

1. I read this for the romance
2. SONOFABITCH!

That’s right, you read #1 correctly—and yes, I know me saying that is close to the border of someone saying “I watch porn for the story.” I started Wolf Guy for the werewolves and stayed for the romance between Inugami and Aoshika. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good romance and I loved the way their relationship was drawn out by the mangaka. It’s not often that I come across a non-shoujo in which I enjoy the love story between two characters (and in which the manga is actually labeled as “romance” without all the harems, reverse-harems, ecchi, and smut tags), so I stayed to see how their relationship would progress through this huge, heaping pile of blood, guts, limbs, and psychological warfare. And yes, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into by starting Wolf Guy.

I mean, have you seen the art? Just that is enough to indicate what sort of atmosphere this story will hold: dark, twisted, bleak, and you’ll have to look hard for even the smallest indication of something related to the word “hope”. The facial expressions, especially those of Haguro—the shit-crazed antagonist—stay in your head even after you’ve reached the next chapter. And the shading again, leaves you reading in a hopeless atmosphere for the MC, Inugami. The art for this manga is AH-MAE-ZING, and even the over-exaggeration of facial expressions or body language can’t be denied as adding more to—rather than taking away from—the story.

Regarding the characters, Inugami is indeed, a truly unfortunate MC. Even if he just wants to live his life normally, he attracts trouble regardless—probably has something to do with him being the last werewolf in Japan. Aoshika, Inugami’s homeroom teacher, worries for Inugami even if he tries to distance himself from her. She may seem like a typical positive woman, but her attitude was refreshing in this dark-ridden story. However, because she continues to involve herself with him, even she is met to face the same troubles he does and she’s soon involved in his conflicts.

Most specifically with one character in particular, Haguro, the antagonist of the story. And this dude is bat-shit crazy. Readers can just shrug him off as an extreme evil villain, but that’s exactly what he is. In simple terms, he’s a prideful human—a man who takes pride in his human race. But werewolves are stronger, better than humans, and he therefore takes it into his own hands to hunt and kill the creatures who see humanity as inferior to their own race. Yeah, he’s crazy.

By the way, did I mention these kids are in junior high? Third year junior high to be exact, but when reading manga and becoming immersed in its universe, I can excuse such details. Besides, that’s the least of your worries when reading this manga.

Violence, sexual content, psychological warfare, rape, rape, RAPE! And here’s where the manga leaves you completely dirty and utterly empty (and where the score was lowered). There’s rape in this manga, and it’s no surprise to who. A woman as beautiful and voluptuous as Aoshika is bound to meet an ill fate in this type of manga. But when the mangaka “parades” this gang rape act on Aoshika throughout multiple chapters, it’s just…well…wrong.

There could be multiple reasons for this several-chapters expansion of the act of raping a woman: 1. To add shock factor 2. To add a sense of realism (as I’m sure time goes by much slower for a rape victim) or 3. Some sort of sick fan service

Regardless of the reason for Aoshika’s rape, none of these justify it for me. I mean, I was left shocked from a MALE getting raped in this manga—and this indeed did happen and I was left confused and shocked for days. Even if it was only one PAGE compared to Aoshika’s +however many chapters of rape, it still left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I’m no feminist, but GAHD, does talking about this make me feel a little hollow on the inside. Seriously, can you imagine waiting for an update on this manga only to be met with a rape chapter over and over again?

I can continue to go on about how “Rape is bad. Rape is wrong,” but for the sake of this review, I’ll move on. Because I sincerely hope my manga/anime community at least hold some morals, even if the majority of us (including me, most of the time) just take in things as we see/read it without much thought and even if we have a thing called hentai where anything and everything can happen.

Now, moving onto my second review opening (refer to #2 at the beginning of this review), this concerns the ending. Never mind that I had to pull through the rape shit, but I had to suffer from the ending as well. Part of me expected it, and yet another part of me wanted it to end a different way—in a definitive way—and not exactly as a happily-ever after. Because really? Only an idiot or someone innocent (in which case, you’ve been forever tainted through this manga) would expect a happy ending to Wolf Guy.

Overall, this manga left me feeling empty. And caged in my room. And sobbing for days in the corner with absolutely no light to penetrate my dark, murky soul.

So here’s the question…will you enjoy this manga? Yes to the peeps who enjoy dark stories full of gore and psychological madness. No to my fellow shoujo maniacs and Kimi ni Todoke readers.

Did I enjoy it? No matter how much it left me bitter and empty, yes. Yes, I did. Only because I like darker stories, though this was borderline plain ridiculous from all the scenarios.

As for the romance—my original intent to reading and sticking with this manga to the bitter end—I cried for both Inugami and Aoshika. I really did.read more

before i get into the grades and all that let me just put a couple things out there about this manga. This is one of those stories you either LOVE or HATE. dont go in expecting the best story youve ever read because this isnt what they were going for here (that being said i do like the story very much it just isnt the strong point of this manga). This manga is about intensity and violence and the most badass mofo around. who is also a werewolf.

Story - 7

Like i said in my intro, not the biggest strength of this manga. While very enjoyable they dont really explain anything as of yet and youre left wondering why the main character even bothers to go to school anymore. they dont really explain his past very much or any goals he may or may not have. So im hoping they start going into more detail about Akira later on.

Art - 10

There isnt too much i can say about the art here because i pretty much think its perfect. The whole manga is dark and the detail they put in is really amazing. Some of the frames of Akira are so good that ive made a few wallpapers out of them.

Character - 10

I know some people may see me giving the story a 7 based on not enough background on the characters but the characters themselves a 10 as a contradiction. The way i see it is that all of the characters are very unique and really interesting. You actually learn more about some of the side characters than you do about the protagonist so it does give you a pretty good idea of why they do what they do. Im guessing the reason they dont tell you much about Akira is because they want to keep him mysterious.

Enjoyment - 10

This is where it really comes together for me. As i said before this is a love it or hate it manga. I had so much fun reading this the first time through that i read it twice more over the next week. The way akira deals with the gang members at school is just f*cking awesome. Another reason i really enjoyed this is because the writer really keeps stepping it up and some of the stuff youre going to see is shocking. do not read this if you have a problem with gore or nudity.

Overall - 10

To sum all this up if you are looking for an extremely violent and fun read that will keep you up late at night while your eyes are permanently wide open in surprise this is for you. The story isnt as good as Akumetsu (manga by the same team for those who havent read it) but in my opinion its more fun to read and i like the characters way more as well. read more